CET to IST Converter

India uses a single time zone, IST at UTC+5:30, measured from the 82.5° east meridian, and has no daylight saving. Central Europe moves to CEST at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday in March and back on the last Sunday in October, a rule shared by every EU country under Directive 2000/84/EC.

So the gap changes on exactly two days a year, both of them European Sundays. The list below gives the dates for this year and next, worked out from the IANA time zone database.

A European morning lines up with an Indian afternoon. When teams in Bengaluru or Pune work with offices in Germany or France, the shared window usually runs from about 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM in Europe, which is 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM in India in winter. In summer that window grows by an hour on the European side, because India's day ends earlier relative to Europe.

Over a full year the European side sees the gap move, while the Indian side sees its meetings move. A 4:00 PM call in Paris is 8:30 PM in Mumbai from November to March and 7:30 PM from April to October, so evening calls are much easier for India in the European summer.

Hand-offs work best when the European team sends requests before its lunch, giving India the afternoon to reply. The live Delhi clock and Madrid clock show the current time on each side.